Breaking news: WE WON!!! WE WON!!! WE WON!!! Today the newsroom workers at
@EverettHerald
voted 19-0 to unionize. We will now have a true say in our working conditions.
Cat’s out of the bag: We’re striking on Monday.
Members of the
@EverettGuild
will be holding a one-day strike to protest
@CMGheros
’ proposed layoff of more than half our journalists.
You can help us by donating to our strike fund:
Today's a hard day. Twelve of our members are working their final shift. We bargained tirelessly for a month, but Carpenter Media simply refused to spare any jobs.
We were, however, able to negotiate optional buyouts, increased severance packages and raises for remaining staff.
Today the
@EverettHerald
informed us that it would not voluntarily recognize our union.
A company attorney told us "we respect employees' right to vote, and will honor that right."
Truly honoring the will of employees would have meant voluntarily recognizing our union.
Gooooood morning,
@EverettHerald
readers!
Please support our strike by refusing to cross the picket line. Do not read or engage with
@EverettHerald
today.
And if scab workers from Carpenter Media Group contact you, please decline to provide an interview.
✊✊✊
Tomorrow morning we will be going on a 24-hour strike. We'd rather be working on stories about the community we love, but our hand has been forced.
Please read the press release below, then come say hi to us as we march up Colby!
Greetings! This is the official Twitter account of the Everett NewsGuild, a union representing the newsroom workers at
@EverettHerald
. Attached is our mission statement. (1/5)
Tomorrow morning we will be going on a 24-hour strike. We'd rather be working on stories about the community we love, but our hand has been forced.
Please read the press release below, then come say hi to us as we march up Colby!
We need your help!
Herald Publisher Rudi Alcott said yesterday “readers won’t notice” that our newsroom is being gutted.
Carpenter Media then tried to redact an article on our website detailing the layoffs they’re imposing.
These actions are unacceptable and shameful.
🧵(1/5) Today, Carpenter Media Group announced layoffs affecting more than half of newsroom staff
@EverettHerald
, effective July 1.
This will undoubtedly harm and weaken our newsroom.
Rest assured, we will fight for each and every one of our affected colleagues.
Thank you to everyone who marched with us this morning. Your support means more than we can express.
We will be back out picketing at 41st and Colby at 2pm! ✊
We asked Carpenter for the legal bare minimum — to bargain with us before imposing layoffs — and it took a 2-day strike to get there.
But we’re back to work today doing what we love, and we’ll begin negotiations with the company on Friday.
Let’s save some newsroom jobs!
We need your support!
@EverettHerald
continues to deliver award-winning journalism, but the people who produce that journalism cannot afford to live in the community they cover.
If you believe journalists deserve a living wage, sign our petition today!
🧵 (1/8) Companies like
@SoundPublishing
are now required to post salary ranges in job postings thanks to a new pay transparency law. We’re grateful for the new law, but frustrated at the dismal starting wages and even lower pay for some existing
@EverettHerald
employees.
The workers of the Everett NewsGuild on Tuesday announced the extension of their strike due to the employer’s failure to set bargaining dates and meet other demands.
“Carpenter has done nothing productive since wrecking our newsroom last week,” said photojournalist Ryan Berry.
Taking a moment to express our sincere appreciation for everyone’s undying support.
Your letters, donations and energy on the picket line have shown that you side with a free and robust local press.
The workers of the Herald newsroom are forever grateful. Let’s keep it going!
@EverettHerald
employees don’t receive any holiday pay, per our employee handbook. Instead, we are required to use our personal bucket of PTO to cover the seven federal holidays our company recognizes, including Labor Day.
🎉Happy first birthday to us!🎉
A year ago today, the editorial staff at the
@EverettHerald
voted 19-0 in favor of our union!
While we thought about throwing a party to celebrate the big day, we couldn’t afford the cake.
We can hardly even afford rent.
Yesterday afternoon we learned that Black Press, the parent company of Sound Publishing and the Everett Herald, is for sale. Members of the Everett NewsGuild are closely watching to see what this may ultimately mean for our newspaper and its readers across Snohomish County.
Good morning! Remember us? We're finally back to the bargaining table with Carpenter after waiting two weeks for their bargaining team to return from vacation.
In that time we've put together a comprehensive contract and layoff proposal, which is now in the company's hands.
The NLRB counts our ballots this Thursday, and we should know the results by the afternoon. When we secure our union, we’ll finally have a seat at the table to ensure a clear and fair PTO policy for our employees.
🧵 (1/7) We’re in the throes of first contract negotiations here at the
@everettherald
, and woo, have we heard some hot takes from
@soundpublishing
at the table. At a recent session, company representatives insinuated that the union is to blame for high turnover in the newsroom.
Today we handed
@EverettHerald
's publisher our petition — signed by more than 550 people — calling on Sound Publishing to pay its journalists a living wage.
Here’s a sampling of the many comments those people submitted along with their signatures:
And though many of us are departing today, Herald journalists — past, present and future — will continue to fight for a fair contract. We will never stop pursuing what's best for the Daily Herald, its staff and its readers.
We held our first effects bargaining session today and came away from it unimpressed.
We are disappointed but unsurprised that our questions have been met with corporate jargon and tired platitudes from Carpenter VP and Sound President Josh O’Connor. 🧵
The union election wheels are turning: We will receive our ballots soon and hear results by Sept. 9! It's little more than a formality at this point, because our union is stronger than ever, but we are excited to cast a resounding "yes" vote for the
@EverettGuild
.
Stay tuned for our big announcement on Sept. 8. And thank you to everyone who continues to support good journalism and good jobs with the Everett NewsGuild!
#AllAboard
We are disappointed, but undeterred, and look forward to a resounding victory in our upcoming election.
Thank you all for your support! Keep it coming and we'll let you know how this unfolds!
The next step is to proceed in collective bargaining with
@soundpublishing
. Stay tuned for our progress in negotiating our first contract.
#AllAboard
for good jobs, and good journalism. Full steam ahead!
This is the exact issue. Guild members work hard to build relationships with our community.
It’s rare to fully retract a story and when a news org does that, it’s serious. Most times it’s an indication there are deep inaccuracies within the piece.
That is not the case here.
Please do your part to keep this story alive. The publisher of The Daily Herald (my former newspaper) took down an article about the new corporate owner, Carpenter Media Group, gutting the newsroom. Some way to build trust with readers, huh?
We want to thank everyone in the community who supported us in this fight. We're thrilled to join our union siblings in the
@PacNWGuild
in fighting to protect and preserve local journalism in the Pacific Northwest.
Members of the
@EverettGuild
are out at the Everett Herald’s Behind the News Stories event, sharing OUR story and asking for support in our fight for living wages.
Sign our petition here!
(8/8) Sound Publishing is surviving on a churn of underpaid journalists. This is unacceptable and unsustainable. If Sound is serious about continuing to be "the leading news and information source in Snohomish County," it must invest in the workers who make that possible.
Let's play spot the difference!
Readers of today's print
@EverettHerald
-- largely produced by non-journalists -- surely won't notice the lack of bylines, the clunky looking headlines and the missing page numbers. Nor will they notice
@snocaleb
's intrepid coverage of our strike.
@Soundpublishing
claimed in a letter to staff last week that it hears and respects its employees’ frustrations about the direction of our newsroom. But we’re not convinced Sound executives even know who we are, let alone hear what we’re saying.
Last night's Behind the News Stories event was a huge success!
Despite the ugly weather, we were uplifted by the chance to share our concerns about the Herald's lack of living wages with so many of our wonderful readers, face to face.
And now, our petition has 340 signatures!
We're incredibly proud of our dedicated journalists and photojournalists who won honors this week in the Society of Professional Journalists' regional contest.
Read the stories and see the photography that won.
A thread🧵
Wow! Our petition for living wages has already topped 250 signatures, and we're just getting started.
Thank you so much for supporting strong local journalism!
If you haven't already, please add your name. Then, tell a friend. ✊
We need your support!
@EverettHerald
continues to deliver award-winning journalism, but the people who produce that journalism cannot afford to live in the community they cover.
If you believe journalists deserve a living wage, sign our petition today!
Carpenter Media Group’s vision for the future of the
@EverettHerald
isn’t pretty. What we’re hearing in negotiations is “double your productivity with half the staff.” Yet the company's starting wage offer is still less than $20.
Former
@EverettHerald
reporter
@YawClaudia
says:
Carpenter Media bought this reputable paper just to gut it. Todd Carpenter lives thousands of miles away from Everett and does not give a hoot about our community. Todd, shame on you for chipping away at local journalism.
"We have all watched with a mix of horror and sadness the devastation of the Daily Herald's newsroom."
Thank you for speaking on this, Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers.
You put it well.
On top of being unfair, Sound Publishing’s PTO policy is extremely confusing. Even our direct managers have trouble explaining how it works — much less why we have it in the first place.
If we haven’t accrued enough PTO, we must use sick time or go into a negative balance for personal days. That gets taken directly out of our paychecks.
Excluding holidays, we have about two weeks of PTO. Don’t worry, we eventually earn more – after FIVE YEARS of employment. By that point, we are granted five more days – if we can even afford to stay here that long. (But that’s a story for another day)
(7/7) The union isn’t hurting employees, it’s helping. And
@soundpublishing
should join the
@EverettGuild
in committing to support good jobs and good journalism in Snohomish County.
The day is finally here!
Today we take a seat at the table to begin contract negotiations with
@soundpublishing
.
It is our hope that Sound will prove it values local news as much as we do by bargaining in good faith over the coming sessions.
🧵(5/5) Tell Carpenter you want decent jobs in journalism and that what the Herald does - provide clear, accurate news - is important.
Because someday soon you will wake up and realize that paying a couple dollars for news was better than what came after.
It has been 294 days since our wage proposal to Sound Publishing and *still* we have not received a counterproposal. We're back at the bargaining table tomorrow — tune in to find out if management quits stalling!
@EverettHerald
We love our jobs, we love this community, and we love what we do. But
@Soundpublishing
doesn’t pay all its employees fairly or equally. This needs to change if the paper is to survive and maintain its quality of coverage. (4/5)
(5/8) At the Skagit Valley Herald, pay starts at $18.36 an hour. At the Bellingham Herald, wages start at $21.63 an hour. The cost of living is lower in these communities compared to Snohomish County. In Everett, one Herald staffer found out their rent is going up 47% in June.
“The Herald has been the only paper in the area to really focus on local matters and I think they’ve done a great job for the community I represent.”
Thank you, Sen. Salomon. We wholeheartedly agree.
We are concerned about changes at The Daily Herald, which is why we've demanded that the company bargain with us over how these changes will affect our working conditions. Stay tuned!
A reminder that YOU can tell Sound Publishing's leaders how damaging their inaction is to our community. Snohomish County deserves journalists who can afford to set roots and report on the region for years, not months. We demand a fair contract!
Another Everett Guild member is leaving the industry to go make more money scooping ice cream. The reality of our situation as underpaid journalists is heartbreaking.
Now for a live look into management's heads as they prepare for tomorrow's bargaining session:
Today we bid a fond farewell to 2 of our union's founding members. Designer Bill Pedigo is retiring after 37+ years
@EverettHerald
, while reporter
@dospueblos
, after 19+ years at the paper, will continue his Capitol coverage with
@statesnewsroom
. Thank you both for your service!
We owe endless thanks to everyone in the community who has supported us these past few months, and especially those who have had our backs since the beginning! The support we saw on the picket line, in our letters to the editor and even in our daily lives has been astonishing.
(2/8) Turnover in the Herald newsroom is at an all-time high due in no small part to stagnant wages that fail to keep pace with the cost of living. Ten people have quit since June - nearly half of all newsroom employees.
🧵(3/5) Snohomish County deserves a reputable, strong professional news source.
That takes investment and, most of all, people in the newsroom — in your community!
We remain hopeful that the workers in this newsroom will *someday* receive the living wage they deserve while having the time and resources to provide the in-depth journalism Snohomish County needs.
But our members just don't see that happening under Carpenter's business model.
@EverettHerald
@soundpublishing
Follow our account to stay up to date on our union. We appreciate any community support sent our way and look forward to things to come! (5/5)
(3/8) The Herald should offer pay it can be proud of, pay that allows staff to stick around, and raise pay for all staff. The advertised pay for a breaking news reporter is $16.75-$18 an hour, with “minimum qualifications” of a bachelor’s degree plus 2-5 years of experience.
(6/8) Pay also lags for existing newsroom staff. Many receive no raise while new employees are hired at higher wages to do the same job. One employee has received a single 50-cent raise in seven years. Another makes less than $20 an hour after more than 35 years with the company.
We owe Eric a debt of gratitude.
He was instrumental in organizing our union and he's worked tirelessly to lead us toward a fair contract. Plus, he's a really great guy.
Eric joins a long list of original members to depart for greener pastures, and we wish him all the best!
Personal news: Today is my last day at
@EverettHerald
. Over the past two and half years I've found tons of weird trash in our office parking lot, so now seems as good a time as any to show off the highlights. A 🧵:
@EverettHerald
Our goal is to ensure fair working conditions, comprehensive benefits and a livable wage for the workers this union represents. We will engage in collective bargaining so newsroom employees feel represented and heard. (3/5)
So, we want to take a moment to introduce the members of the Everett NewsGuild -- and celebrate the great work we do for the paper and our positive impact on the community.
@benwatanabe
covers the Everett City Council with the insight of a local who gives a crap. He writes the Street Smarts column about transportation, from traffic jams to the Link Light Rail's slow creep north, and rides his bike like he cares about climate change.
Celebrating May Day with a new PFP and six hours at the bargaining table! On May 1 each year we recognize the long history of laborers around the world who fought for their rights, and we proudly carry on that tradition as we fight for ours. We demand a FAIR CONTRACT NOW!
🧵(2/5) The company has dragged its feet on negotiations for more than a year, before finally coming to an insultingly offer on hourly wages.
Herald journalists work tirelessly to bring local news to residents; these actions directly undercut our ability to continue doing so.
"I have been a subscriber for 50 years and deem this latest blow to the local Herald community a potential death knell.
"To management: I implore you to rethink this recent action. Thank you."
Carpenter: "Earnings per share and return on equity as primary goals wreck newspapers, plain and simple.”
Honestly... we couldn't have said it better ourselves.
We hope our new ownership will stand by their word and show us through action that they value local news.
Black Press, the British Columbia-based longtime owner of The Daily Herald and another 150 publications in the United States and Canada, was officially sold Monday,
@JanicePods
reports.
Please send a letter to the editor to letters
@heraldnet
.com and give these guys a piece of your mind!
CC ralcott
@soundpublishing
.com, todd.carpenter
@carpentermediagroup
.com and guild37082
@gmail
.com
so we can ensure your voice is heard.
This fight’s not over.
(4/8) That’s lower than what many fast food restaurants pay workers. It’s often young reporters hoping to get a foot in the door who are hired for these low wages. And minimum pay at the Herald is far below what it is at other newspapers in the region.
Former
@EverettHerald
columnist
@JennBardsley
says:
I’m deeply troubled by Carpenter Media Group’s decision to dismiss 12 newsroom employees.
I call upon my fellow subscribers to email chairman Todd Carpenter and voice their disapproval: todd.carpenter
@carpentermediagroup
.com.
(7/8) The company told a recent hire that it would not negotiate pay, claiming it could not move in anticipation of the raises we may secure at the bargaining table. But nothing is stopping the company from offering higher wages NOW to stem turnover and fairly pay new employees.
"Is there any way you could transform yourself into a publisher who cares about democracy, your community, and good journalism enough to fight against these layoffs rather than be a participant in them?"
(2/7) Since we voted in September to join the
@PacNWGuild
, more than a dozen members have left the paper. So, being nosy journalists, we asked what drove their decision to lead. Spoiler alert for publisher
@rudialcott
: It wasn’t because we unionized.
@BredaIsabella
covers local government. She wrote a 3-part series about the federal boarding schools Tulalip kids were forced into. For more than a year, she dug through historical archives & interviewed survivors to chronicle a cultural genocide.
(6/7)
@MalloryGruben
echoed what many of us feel: our wages are too low and we lack support from managers. Now she is happier working at
@nwlaborpress
.
🧵(4/5) We’ve seen that play out. It hurts the community. It hurts understanding of local issues. It hurts everyone.
If you don’t have good, solid, accurate information your worldview becomes distorted and it becomes difficult to know what’s true and what’s not.
We want your help! Management doesn't seem to think our work in the community is worth a living wage. Write in and tell them you side with the journalists at the Herald!
We deserve better from Sound Publishing, and so do our readers. We hope leadership at this company will recognize that failing to engage meaningfully with the Everett NewsGuild does nothing to benefit the Herald or the people of Snohomish County.
@reporterbrown
needs no introduction. But if you're new here: she's best known for her "What's Up With That?" column, which has taken her to sex shops, parklets, creepy electronic dinosaur exhibits, and -- most importantly -- Costco